Thursday, March 16, 2017

Filipina OFW and Co-workers Left Unpaid by Employer in Dubai

An employer in Dubai fled the country without paying 15 of their employees their salaries or gratuity leaving them in limbo over the deception made by their employer one of which is a Filipina OFW. Some of them has served the company for the last 10 years.They were not paid their salaries for three months and did not even receive their end-of-service benefits or gratuity.

In January, four of the workers filed a court case against Avenue Interiors. The court ordered the company to shut down, freeze all of its assets and bank accounts. However, without paying the staff their dues, the owner immediately left the country without notifying their employees.

The employer even owe a 38 year-old Filipina employee a sum of money amounting to AED 250,000. She had served the company for the last seven years with a salary of AED 8,000 per month."They are monsters. They left without telling anyone and did not pay us anything. They never let me keep my commissions. I was told I would be allowed to keep 5% from each sale I made," the OFW said.

"We were not given our salaries for three months and we didn't get our gratuity. They even made me pay for my own health insurance. This was my first job in Dubai and I can't believe this has happened," she added.

An employee of the company who used to earn AED 5,000 per month said he is worried he won't be able to pay the school fee for his three children now.

"I'm having a lot of difficulty now. My rent is due soon and I paid my children's fees after borrowing money from relatives. But how will I pay the next amount? I gave my hard work to this company for 10 years and this is how I'm repaid?" he said.
The company owes him AED 17,000 excluding his end of service allowance.

An Indian driver earning AED 2,780, who had served the company for 10 years, also shared the sentiment of the many employees who felt cheated.

"They could've at least given me the salary they owed me. I anyway didn't make much here. I don't know why they didn't have the heart to pay me something," Arumugam said.

The company has about 100 employees, many of whom have already left the country without their salaries, provided plane tickets from their own pockets.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation issued a statement that there are several measures in place to secure the rights of workers, including distributing the amount owed to the workers' after ceasing the company's bank accounts.

In such cases, these are the things that most likely about to take place, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation:

Governmental policies specify punishments and closure of companies that do not pay or give privileges to its employees.

The ministry has developed a number of channels that enable workers to communicate with authorities in an event where they fail to receive their dues. The workers can submit their complaints via the service-centre or through the smart applications of the ministry.

In an event where a complaint is filed by 10 workers or more, the ministry summons the employer and takes the required action.

In an event where the final judgement is in the favour of the workers and the employer does not follow through, the Labour Court will take action by freezing bank accounts and delivering the worker their rights.

Workers, when they are in court, should ask for a temporary work permit to ensure some income in the period of the trial.

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